Main menu

You are here

Cranberry Iron Mine

by Jean H. Seaman, 2006

The Cranberry Iron Mine is located on an immense subterranean stretch of titaniferous magnetite (titanium, iron oxide) centered around Cranberry in Avery County. Said to have been used by Indians before their contact with whites, it came to be worked mainly from surface ore by 1829 and was opened to systematic production around 1880. In 1882 a railroad facilitated movement of the ore to the furnace. The ore, low in silica and phosphorus, was characterized as the largest deposit of Bessemer ore in the South. By 1974 it was the only active iron mine left in North Carolina.

If you would like help locating additional resources, reference librarians here at the Government & Heritage Library may be able to help. You can find their contact information on our website at http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/contact.html and they may be contacted by both telephone and email.

If you would like help locating additional resources, reference librarians here at the Government & Heritage Library may be able to help. You can find their contact information on our website at http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/contact.html and they may be contacted by both telephone and email.

The article characterizes this mine as the only one active by 1974 in NC. This is misleading and untrue. The mine shut down in 1929. Despite a short-lived pilot project to process ore during WW II, the mine would be more accurately characterized as having been inactive since 1929.

About 1923 (i was about 4 years old) While playing in my front
yard in Linville nc I could hear the lunch time whistle
at twelve noon and back to work whistle at The Cranberry Iron Mine. I was amazed that I could hear
the whistle that far away..Probably because it was a very deep tone sound..